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McGILL BIRD OBSERVATORY |
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Welcome to the McGill Bird Observatory weekly report. Click here for a complete listing of our archives. Comments or questions are welcome at mbo@migrationresearch.org.
Bander-in-charge:
Marcel Gahbauer Notes: Thanks to a dedicated volunteer crew, we got all of the main spring nets up on Tuesday morning. Taking advantage of some tricks we first applied to the winter nets, all are now top-tied, making it much easier to walk past the nets. Most nets are in the same places as last fall, but an extra net has been added to the "B" section along the ridge north of the banding station, and an "A" net has been inserted between "C" and "D", on the 'inside' of the main loop path. The small weekend crews also did a great job at cleaning up much of the junk that had accumulated on the site for two decades prior to the establishment of MBO. Tuesday was windy, and so we only caught two birds - an Eastern Phoebe and an American Tree Sparrow. Saturday morning, our first bird was a Song Sparrow in D3, and it was our 1000th bird banded at MBO since we began operations in May 2004 (owls included). Sunday we followed up with our first two returns of the spring, both of them Song Sparrows banded here last October. A small flock of five American Goldfinches hit the net together, showing a remarkable range of moult among them. New species have been arriving daily this week, including Eastern Phoebe (Tuesday), Golden-crowned Kinglet (Wednesday), Fox Sparrow (Thursday), Killdeer (Friday), Tree Swallow (Saturday), Chipping Sparrow and Belted Kingfisher (Sunday) . Also, there have been a remarkable four additions to the overall site checklist this week. Three were just flying by overhead - Double-crested Cormorant, Great Black-backed Gull, and Iceland Gull. However, on Sunday three Hooded Mergansers were seen swimming in the back pond, and we hope they might stay for a while along with the many Wood Ducks (as many as 13). Last but not least, the migrant birds aren't the only ones making their first appearances of the year. On Saturday the first Spring Peepers began calling from the back ponds late in the morning, and the Wood Frog below was spotted on the back access road. A few flies and moths were seen too, but it will (hopefully) be a while yet before the mosquitoes begin harassing us while we check the nets near the water.
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